Method of printing multicolor



Dec. 15, 1942. H. LEE 2,305,537Y

METHOD OF PRINTING MULTICOLOH Filed April 16, 1941 J7/again? Z255 Patented Dec. 15, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENTY OFFICE METHOD 0F PRINTING MULTICOLOR HamptonLee, White Plains, N. Y.

Application April 16, 1941, Serial No. 388,847

(Cl. `10h-,211)

2 Claims.

This invention applies to the printing of repeat pattern multi-colored designs on strip material.

In the practice of printing multi-colored designs on strip material it is conventional to employ a plurality of drums, each drum being used to print oneof the several colors. The drums are provided with surface configurations corresponding to the design, the specific structure of which, and the manner of their production, being well known in the art and forming no part of the present invention. Each drum prints a color, and the several drums are intergeared to print their respective colors in the same area .of the material, to produce the composite design. The surface `conlig-uration of each drinn is deter- .mined by the areain the design which receives the color incident to the color printed by the drum.

According to one practice of multi-color printing, each drum is equipped to receive a surface printing plate of flexible material, for example, sheet metal. The plate is conventionally atn tached to the drum by means of a cleat extending longitudinally of the drum. In printing with flexible plates attached to drums, the attaching means produces an area in the surface of the drum which is not available for printing, the design being conned to the rest of the surface area of the drum. This produces repeated bands transversely of the strip, which bands are devoid of printed color. According to prior art practice, the designs of each plate are so arranged that the gap caused by the attaching means of the several drums appear at the same place in the material being printed. The result in the printed material, comprising a continuous strip, is a pattern involving the several colors of the several drums repeated longitudinally of the strip with intermittent gaps in the design.

This presents a disadvantage in the prior art practice which is negligible in the case of printing repeat patternswhich are to be separated in predetermined lengths, as the voids are positioned at the juncture of repeats of the pattern, and are removed from the material as waste. No means have been devised, prior to the `present invention, to produce a continuous multi-color repeat pattern, with such flexible plates, which will not show a line of demarcation between successive repetitions of the pattern.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the intermittent gaps in continuous color, repeat pattern designs on strip material. To

accomplish this purpose the several plates have the patterns arranged in the manner that the attaching means for the plate on the drum in rotary presses, or in the line of separation between adjacent impressions of the same plate in flat print, assumes a position within the pattern where the incident color of that plate does not appear in the finished multi-color print. In each impression of a single color, as by a drum in rotary printing, or in adjacent impressions from a single plate, as in flat printing, the gap between the adjacent edges of the plates is occupied by the color of one or more impressions of the remaining drums or plates. In this manner the result in the material is a continuous color pattern repeated longitudinally with no apparent or unsightly gaps between the several patterns. In the practice of the invention the pattern is so designed that certain portions of its length normally are devoid each of a particular color and the voids of the several colors are spaced apart along the design.

That being the invention expressed in general terms, attention is now directed to the drawings for a more detailed understanding of one practical application thereof.

In the drawing:

Figure l shows a design t0 be printed repeatedly along strip material;

Figures 2, 3 and 4, respectively, are schematic views to illustrate# the arrangement of the pattern on the respective printing plates for the respective several colors;

Figure 5 shows a rotary machine arrangement for the practice of the invention; and

Figure 6 is a schematic View showing the relative displacement of color plate impressions in carrying out the invention, in flat printing.

Now, referring te the drawing, Figure l shows a design creation which is to be repeatedly applied to a piece of strip material, such as paper and the like, and which design embodies a plurality ci different colors. In the incident case the design includes the fields ii, I2 and I3, respectively comprising the colors blue, green and brown. It will be noted that the design comprises a landscape scene with a tree trunk, a house, and a walk in brown; tree tops and lawns in green; sky and water in blue.

Between the dotted lines indicated at iii there is a transverse band, vetical of the picture, which is devoid of green. The pand iii embodies fields I3 of brown, comprising portions of the walk and of the tree trunk, and iields I2, comprising portions of lawn and tree top. Similarly, band I5 is devoid of brown, comprising lields II and I 2, of blue and green respectively. Band I6 is devoid of green, comprising elds II of blue.

Now viewing Figure 2 it will be noted that the picture therein presents a negative of the picture in Figure l. Figure 2 presents a schematic showing of the arrangement of the pattern on the plate which prints the blue. The coniigura tion in heavy lines in Figure 2 represents the area actually printed by this plate, comprising the ields l I of sky and Water. The rest of the picture is shown in Figure 2 in iine lines, to illustrate the application of the invention more clearly. The design is arranged on the plate of Figure 2 to make the band I4, which is devoid of blue, coincide with the opposite ends II and I8 of the plate. The ends I9 and 20 of the design in Figure 1 meet in the design of Figure 2 at ZI.

Figure 3 represents the design of the plate for printing the field I3 in Figure l of brown color. The iield I3 in Figure 3 represents the portion actually printed by this plate, the rest of the picture being shown in fine lines for purposes of illustration. The strip I5 of Figure 1, which is devoid of brown, corresponds with the opposite ends 22 and 23 of the plate of Figure 3. The ends IS and 23 of the design in Figure 1, meet in Figure 3, at the line 2Q.

Figure 4 represents the design of the plate for printing the fields I2 of green in Figure 1. The areas I2', in heavy lines are actually printed by this plate, the rest of the picture being shown in iine lines. The strip I6 of Figure 1, which is devoid of green, corresponds with the opposite ends 25 and Zi of the design of Figure 4 for the e" green printing plate. The ends Iii and 2G of the design of Figure 1 meet in Figure i at the line 2l.

Figure 5 shows three several drums 23, 29 and 3G. rIhe respective drums, 28, 29 and 33, have attached thereto the plates 3i, 3?; and 33 for printing the respective colors. Each plate is applied to the surface of the drum as shown and is attached thereto by any suitable means, such as the cleat it imbedded into the surface of the drum. The plate is so positioned on the drum that the cleat ts into the design where it is devoid of the color of that plate.

'Io illustrate, if the drum 23 is to be used to print the blue, the plate 3l isequipped with the configuration comprised in the field II of Figure 2. The ends I'i and i8 of Figure 2 correspond with the termination of the plate 3I at the cleat i. In a similar manner the design is applied to the plate 32 according to the contour of the fields I2 or I3, depending upon whether the drum 29 prints the green or the brown. In any event, the drum 33 prints the remaining color.

The drums 28, 29 and 33 are equipped with intergearing 35, which drives the several drums at the same surface speed, and maintains the i drums in predetermined relative position circumferentially. As the material 36 passes over the plate 3l tc be printed, the respective colors :from the respective plates, 33, 32 and 3l in succession, are applied to the material in the same i area to produce the desired picture, for example, such as is illustrated in Figure l. The cleats 3G meet the fabric at positions between the ends or the picture, I9 and 23, i. e., at the bands I4, I5 and I5, where the incident colors of the respective plates do not appear in the picture. In this manner repeat patterns may be produced on the strip 36 without interruption in color throughout the length of the strip. At the termination of each pattern on the strip the next repetition of the pattern begins without a gap. By making the ends of the design coincide as a meeting line of parts of the same picture, the resultant print presents the effect of an uninterrupted picture.

The invention is practiced by preparing a multicolored design in which there are transverse bands devoid of one or the other of the colors, the several bands being spaced apart longitudinally of the dei) f z..

sign. 'Ihe respective plates for printing the several colors receive the negative design incident to the particular color` in such a position on the plate that the bands devoid of that color in the design meet the ends of the plate where it is attached to the roller by means of the cleat 34. The rollers for printing the several colors are then synchronized with reference to each other, and with reference to the distance between rollers, so that, as the strip material passes from roller to roller, the positioning of the design of any particular color by a given roller will correspond with the position of different colors already printed on the strip by previous rollers. The result will be a strip printed with a continuous design comprising a repeat pattern consisting of a plurality of colors, in which there is a continuous application of color throughout the length of the strip. In each repeat pattern there will be at least one area for each color which will be devoid of that color at some place between the ends of the design, and the several areas devoid of the respective several colors will be spaced apart longitudinally of the pattern.

In Figure 6 which shows the method of the invention applied to iiat printing, the impressions 39, 40 and 4I which are superposed in actuality, are so displaced longitudinally that while the patterns in each color register, the adjacent edges 42 and 43, for example, of successive impressions of the same plate, and which represent a gap in the single color of that plate, fall within the bounds of the superposed strips I4 and 45 where the absence of that color is permissible according to the selection or design of the pattern with this end in View. Y

The described subject mtter comprises on practical application of the invention. There can be a, number of modifications and departures from the structure speciiically described, without departing from the scope of the invention, which is determined by the accompanying claims.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. The method of producing a continuous repeat pattern multi-colored print which comprises designing the pattern, with respect to color arrangement, so that there is a void of one color in each of a plurality of narrow longitudinally spaced strips, equal to the number of printing plates, extending transversely across the pattern intermediate the ends thereof, preparing printing plates, one for each color, with the pattern shifted longitudinally diierent distances on each, printing from the plates arranged to print the patterns in registry, and overlapped so that the opposite end edges of the pattern on each of the respective plates come into printing contact within the bounds of the respective strips.

2. The method of producing a continuous repeat pattern multi-colored print which comprises designing the pattern, with respect to color arrangement, so that there is a void of one color in each of a plurality of narrow, longitudinally spaced strips, equal to the number of printing plates, extending transversely across the pattern intermediate the ends thereof, preparing flexible printing plates, one for each color, with the pattern shifted longitudinally different distances on each, iiexing said plates around printing cylinders, so that the gap between adjacent edges of a plate on any cylinder will register within the inked strips produced by other cylinders and printing from said plates on said cylinders.

HAMPTON LEE. 

